Microwaved Eggs Can Cause Eye Injuries in Kid

Microwaved Eggs Can Cause Eye Injuries in Kid


Wednesday, April 27, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Two children injured their eyes -- in one case, permanently - after standing next to a microwaved egg that exploded, highlighting the dangers of improperly microwaved foods, research reports.

An 8-year-old girl developed burns on her forehead and around the eyes and nose, as well as abrasions on her cornea, when she touched the shell of a microwaved egg with a fork, and it exploded. She had an uneventful recovery, the investigators note.

However, her brother, 11, received much more extensive injuries to his eyes, which permanently impaired his vision.

The authors, led by Dr. Svetlana Berestizshevsky of the Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, report their findings in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_24331.html

you have to break the yolk. How terrible!

and it is NOT obvious to a kid that you cannot make a hard boiled egg just by microwaving the egg in the shell.

You know, poke holes in it with a fork or knife and then wrap a damp paper cloth around it.

Those babies can also explode all over the kitchen, too.

Poor kids.

I wash the off and put them in the MW all the time. I have never had one explode. Never. I do not poke holes in them either. A potato has nothing to allow pressure to build up in them. Not even the skin.

MY ASS!!!

It may not have happened to you, but that doesn't mean it can't.
I had never heard that particular "Old Wives' Tale", placed an unpoked potato in the microwave. I was fortunate the damn thing exploded in the mic. No injuries, just an hour + of scrubbing...

...Also, for the record: making eggs on the stove, in the traditional manner, can be just as risky.

Piece of advice for anyone who is unaware of what happens when you pick up a book and forget you have eggs boiling on the stove: when the water boils out of the pan, the egg flies straight up. If you have a solid ceiling, you will probably wind up scraping and painting. I was fortunate, I just replaced ceiling tiles. But, it wasn't just one or two...No, my mother decided that that was as good a time as any to replace the entire ceiling...That one got rather expensive.

Forgot about them and boiled the pan dry. All that happened was I burned the bottom of the eggs. Kinda stunk some. They were just sitting there in the pan, smoking a bit.
Dumped them in the sink and ran some water on them to cool them off and tossed them.

Why would they fly straight up? Why would they go anywhere on their own? they were already hard boiled. They were solid.

What I know is that they hit the ceiling and splattered.
When I placed them on the stove (2 eggs in a 2 quart aluminum pan - high heat on an electric stove) they were submerged in water. I started reading - sort of forgot about everything else (I remained in the kitchen the entire time just so I WOULDN'T FORGET I HAD SOMETHING ON THE STOVE -a strategy which apparently did not work). I remember sniffing and wondering "Hmm, what could be burning?" And somewhere, in the fraction of a second, between that thought and the recollection of "OH SHIT, THE EGGS!!!", an 'oeufs a la coque' rocket was propelled ceilingward.

Needless to say, I am now a kitchen - appliance - shy 41 year old female who subsists on peanut butter, cold cereal, and raw fruits and vegetables.

Edit:

Addendum: When I say "hit the ceiling and splattered", I mean, they shot up with enough force to blow the false ceiling tile upward to the actual ceiling where the 'splatter' occurred.

A coworker accidentally set the microwave to 13 minutes instead of 3, then sat absent-mindedly reading a book. The potato cooked, dried out, and caught fire - literally flames shooting out of the oven's vents and lots of smoke. The whole floor was evacuated, firefighters summoned, and hilarity ensued.